Top 25 Most Prestigious Medical Journals

themedwriters.com/top-25-prestigious-medical-journals

Post author By Dr. Karen Vieira

There are many medical and scientific journals but only a few are the most prestigious
medical journals. For any area of specialty or field of study, there are most likely multiple
publications competing for the title of “go to” authority. So when you are picking out a
journal, whether it is as a credible source or as a place to publish your own research, it can
be tough to pick the right one. However, over time, certain publications have risen above
the rest. These make up our most prestigious medical journals list.

1/11
“Prestige” simply means that a particular institution is held in high regard. While an NFL
team may have many pro-bowl players or a movie might win a slew of awards, in the
world of scientific publishing prestige is generally measured by a score called “impact
factor”. Impact factor, basically, means that the work within a particular publication has
been referenced by other works in the field. This can be taken as a rough approximation of
the journal’s influence, or impact, on the community at large. Impact factors are how we
determined the most prestigious medical journals currently.

The most prestigious medical journals – sorted by their most

recent impact factor

1) CA – A Cancer Journal for Clinicians

ISSN:1542-4863

Impact Factor: 223.679

Link:
https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1
5424863

Description: CA is an oncology journal that has been

published for the American Cancer society since the
1950s. It is a bimonthly peer-reviewed medical journal
published by Wiley-Blackwell. The journal covers
aspects of cancer research on diagnosis, therapy, and
prevention. This was not what we expected to be at the
top of our MOST prestigious medical journals list. Our
guess for #1 actually came in as #2.

2) New England Journal of Medicine

ISSN: 0028-4793

Impact Factor: 74.699

Link:
https://knowledgeplus.nejm.org/products/

Description: The New England Journal of Medicine is the queen of all general medical
journals. It is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It
is known as the most prestigious medical journals as well as the oldest continuously
published one.

3) The Lancet

2/11
ISSN: 0140-6736

Impact Factor: 60.392

Link: https://www.thelancet.com/

Description: For the last 197 years, The Lancet has been publishing top-tier scientific
medical research with the simple goal of improving human lives. It is a weekly peer-
reviewed general medical journal. It is among the world’s oldest and best-known general
medical journals. It definitely deserves a place in the top 3 most prestigious medical
journals.

4) Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology

ISSN: 1759-4782

Impact Factor: 53.276

Link: https://www.nature.com/subjects/biomarkers/nrclinonc

Description: Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology publishes up-to-date summaries of the

state of cancer research intended for advanced medical audiences.Basically, it is a peer-
reviewed journal for oncologists. The journal was renamed from Nature Clinical Practice
Oncology in April 2009. Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology is one of eight Clinical Review
journals published by the Nature Publishing Group. We thought Nature, not one of the
Nature Reviews would be in the top 5 most prestigious medical journals, so this one and
the following one and the following 2 were a surprise.

5) Nature Reviews Cancer

ISSN: 1474-175X

Impact Factor: 53.030

Link: https://www.nature.com/nrc/

Description: Nature Reviews Cancer publishes articles on the modern study of cancer
intended for a broad readership. It is still mainly focused on oncologists.

6) Nature Reviews Immunology

ISSN: 1474-1741

3/11
Impact Factor: 44.019

Link: https://www.nature.com/nri/

Description: Nature Reviews publishes comprehensive surveys of research on all levels of

immune response studies. It is a monthly review journal covering the field of
immunology. The journal also publishes “Research highlight” articles, which are short
summaries written by the editors that describe recent hot research papers.

7) Nature

ISSN: 1476-4687

Impact Factor: 42.778

Link: https://www.nature.com/

Description: Nature is a British weekly

scientific journal founded and based in
London, England. As a multidisciplinary
publication, Nature features peer-reviewed
research from a variety of academic disciplines, mainly in science, technology, and the
natural sciences. This is widely known as one of the most prestigious journals to publish
in.

8) Nature Reviews Disease Primers

ISSN: 2056-676X

Impact Factor: 40.689

Link: https://www.nature.com/nrdp/

Description: Nature Reviews Disease Primers publishes introductory articles outlining

medicine’s current understanding of any one, specific condition from any medical field.
Basically, it is a peer-reviewed medical journal publishing broad review articles about
disease areas, offering a global overview of the field and outlining “key open research
questions”.

9) World Psychiatry

4/11
ISSN: 1723-8617

Impact Factor: 40.595

Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/20515545

5/11
Description: As the official journal of the world psychiatric organization, World
Psychiatry aims to communicate significant psychological research findings to the world.
It is the official publication of the World Psychiatric Association. It is published by Wiley-
Blackwell and the Editor-in-chief is Mario Maj.

10) Cell

ISSN: 1097-4172

Impact Factor: 38.637

Link: https://www.cell.com/

Description: Cell is a peer-reviewed scientific journal

publishing research papers across a broad range of
disciplines within the life sciences. This one is no surprise
in the top 10 most prestigious journals.

11) Nature Medicine

ISSN: 1078-8956

Impact Factor: 36.130

Link:
https://www.nature.com/nm/

Description: Nature Medicine

focuses on publishing the evidence
for and impact of cutting-edge insight into disease processes. It is a monthly peer-
reviewed medical journal publishing research articles, reviews, news and commentaries in
the biomedical area, including both basic research and early-phase clinical research
covering all aspects of medicine.

12) Nature Reviews Microbiology

ISSN: 1740-1534

Impact Factor: 34.209

Link: https://www.nature.com/nrmicro/

6/11
Description: Nature Reviews Microbiology publishes work on the current state of the field
of microbiology intended for the widest possible readership.It is a peer-reviewed review
journal published by the Nature Publishing Group. It publishes reviews and perspectives
on microbiology, bridging fundamental research and its clinical, industrial, and
environmental applications.

13) The Lancet Oncology

ISSN: 1470-2045

Impact Factor: 33.752

Link: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/home

Description: The Lancet Oncology specializes in clinical oncology and pays special
attention to articles that suggest changes in cancer treatment best practices.

14) Nature Reviews Genetics

ISSN:1471-0056

Impact Factor: 33.133

Link: https://www.nature.com/nrg/

Description: Nature Reviews Genetics is a journal of reviews covering the latest advances
in the expansive field of genetics. It is a monthly review journal in genetics and covers the
full breadth of modern genetics. The journal publishes review and perspective articles
written by experts in the field subject to peer review and copy editing to provide
authoritative coverage of topics.

15) Journal of Clinical Oncology

ISSN:1527-7755

Impact Factor: 32.956

Link: https://ascopubs.org/journal/jco/

Description: The Journal of Clinical Oncology publishes any and all top-tier cancer
research. It is a peer-reviewed medical journal published 3 times a month by the
American Society of Clinical Oncology. It covers research on all aspects of clinical
oncology. All articles older than one year are freely available online.

7/11
16) The Lancet Neurology

ISSN: 1474-4465

Impact Factor: 30.039

Link: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/home

Description: The Lancet Neurology publishes reviews and cutting-edge articles on any
topic in the field of neurology.

17) Cancer Cell

ISSN: 1535-6108

Impact Factor: 26.602

Link: https://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/home

Description: Cancer Cell publishes advances in traditional and

translational oncological research at the cellular level. It is a peer-
reviewed scientific journal published by Cell Press. It covers all
aspects of cancer research at the cellular-level. The journal was
established in February 2002 and the editor-in-chief is Li-Kuo Su.

18) Physiological Reviews

ISSN: 1522-1210

8/11
Impact Factor: 25.588

Link: https://journals.physiology.org/toc/physrev/0/0

Description: Physiological Reviews publishes

comprehensive, timely reviews on a wide variety of topics
in the field of medical physiology.

19) The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology

ISSN: 2213-8595

Impact Factor: 25.340

Link: https://www.thelancet.com/landia/about

Description: The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology publishes

articles outlining ongoing work in the field of endocrinology.

20) The Lancet Infectious Diseases

ISSN: 1474-4457

Impact Factor: 24.446

Link: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/issue/current

Description: The Lancet Infectious Disease publishes nearly any

information that might be of interest to clinicians involved in the
study of infectious disease.

21) Accounts of Chemical Research

ISSN: 0001-4842

Impact Factor: 21.661

Link: https://pubs.acs.org/toc/achre4/current

9/11
Description: Accounts of Chemical Research
features to-the-point descriptions of
laboratory chemical research.

22) Immunity

ISSN: 1097-4180

Impact Factor: 21.522

Link: https://www.cell.com/immunity/home

Description: Immunity publishes any high quality research that

pertains to the field of immunology.

23) Annual Review of Immunology

ISSN: 1545-3278

Impact Factor: 20.760

Link:https://www.annualreviews.org/loi/i
mmunol

Description: Annual Review of

Immunology concentrates on the human
immune system and its response to a wide
variety of challenges.

24) Journal of the American College of Cardiology

10/11
ISSN:1558-3597

Link:https://www.onlinejacc.org/

Impact Factor: 18.639

Description: The JACC publishes research pertaining to pathologies of the heart and
circulatory system.

25) Acta Neuropathologica

Link:https://www.springer.com/journal/401

ISSN: 0001-6322

Impact Factor: 18.174

Description: Acta Neuropathologica strives to publish the very best, well-

validated neurological disease research available.

Conclusion – submitting to the most prestigious medical journals

Whenever writing a paper to submit to one of the most prestigious medical journals, make
sure to have other scientists read your paper and give feedback. If your budget allows,
consider an objective professional medical editor. Contact us for a price quote to help with
your paper. We offer writing, critiquing, editing and formatting for the journal.

You can also check some of our medical-related press releases here.

11/11